


Two Apart/Two Become

by AlphaScorpiixx



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Monstropolis, dive to the heart, kh3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:01:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29573580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlphaScorpiixx/pseuds/AlphaScorpiixx
Summary: The encounter with Vanitas in Monstropolis goes a bit differently. But Sora’s heart isn’t alone, and someone else shows up to protect him.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	Two Apart/Two Become

The door carrier jostled, and Sora dug his monster claws tighter into the frame. He’d had plenty of falls from high spots, but the drop in the Door Vault wasn’t one he wanted to try. He tried to quell his uneasiness as the group rode back to the Laugh Floor. No Seeker had appeared in this world yet, and they had the uncanny habit of showing up wherever he went.

They arrived back at the Laugh Floor, and the doors slotted into place. Sora and the others jumped down just as a black-coated figure emerged. A dark helmet obscured their face. Sora gritted his teeth. Another problem to deal with. 

“Who are  _ you?” _

“Gotta say, that strange facade had me fooled at first, brother.” That biting voice, foreign yet somehow familiar, grated in Sora’s ears. He winced. He’d heard that voice before. A hazy recollection, like something from a dream.

“Wait a sec . . . Oh yeah! You were at the cathedral! And yeah! Who are  _ you _ to call anyone strange?”

Behind him, Goofy glanced at Donald. “Say, do we know this guy?”

“Uhhh . . .”

“We haven’t ever met in the flesh,” the masked figure said. He laid his hand over his heart. “I am Vanitas.”

Familiar or not, a black coat meant Organization Thirteen. Sora was getting tired of the talk-and-run act. “This is the part where you spout some mumbo jumbo and disappear, right?”

“This whole world . . . was powered by scream,” Vanitas said, predictably. But the words sent chills down Sora’s spine. He didn’t like where this was going. “They converted the screams of human children into energy. And this very company was what made it all happen. It’s as rich a source of negative emotion as we’ll ever find.” He walked over to the desks as he spoke and picked up one of the canisters.

“For the last time, we already stopped doing that!” Mike insisted. 

“Did you? Then how do you explain all these canisters of surplus scream?” Vanitas lifted the canister and tossed in the air, unburdened by the weight of the emotions inside. “This facility was everything I could hope for. And I was lucky enough to find a pawn who’s heart was darkened by thoughts of revenge.”   
Mike and Sully tensed. “You mean Randall,” Mike said.

“All Randall ever cared about was winning,” Sulley said. “And this guy took advantage of that weakness.”

“My heart is made of just one thing. And the Unversed collected enough screams and sadness from those children to reconstruct it.”  
“Yeah, and the whole time they were trashing our company in the process!” Mike stomped forward, prepared to face Vanitas on his own, but Sully stopped him before Sora could. Mike’s limbs flailed as he tried to escape Sully’s grasp.

Vanitas ignored them and continued his speech. “But, even with all this negative emotion, my heart is incomplete. I need something else.” 

He dropped the canister. It bounced on the floor, then the screams inside burst out, shooting for the group. Sora leapt back as Sully pulled Mike out of the way. The canister ricocheted off the ceiling and then fell back down, its scream energy depleted. Sora watched it roll back toward him and stop at his feet.

“The half of me that sleeps on . . . inside of your heart.”

Sora whipped around. Vanitas held out his Keyblade, the blade’s teeth ridged like gears, pointed straight at Sora’s heart. Pain sliced through him, though Vanitas hadn’t attacked. His heart surged, like something was writhing inside it.

“Vanitas!” Sora shouted, the name escaping his mouth without his intent. “Huh?”

“Ventus . . . what a strange place to slither off to.” Vanitas lowered his Keyblade and advanced. “You insignificant speck.” He grabbed at Sora’s chest, but Sora slapped his hand aside.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, you won’t remember,” Vanitas taunted. “When you were little, you formed a special bond with a boy named Ventus who joined with your heart.”

“Ven!” Donald shouted.

“Is he sayin’ that one of the missing Keyblade wielders is inside Sora’s heart?” Goofy said.

“How is that possible?” It wasn’t entirely shocking. He’d given Kairi’s heart refuge before. But, still, this was different, though. How could a person he’d never met rest inside his heart? Sora was trying to wrap his head around the idea, he almost didn’t notice the darkness emerging from Vanitas.

“Now, you will return Ventus to me.” Vanitas swung his Keyblade. Darkness surged forth. Another slice of pain stabbed Sora’s chest, forcing him to his knees.

“Donald . . . Goofy . . .” 

Vanitas may have had him down, but Sora wasn’t alone. Donald and Goofy stood in front of him with their weapons raised, ready to protect him if Vanitas moved.

“The King told us about this,” Goofy said. He braced his feet on the floor as the wave of darkness surged against his shield. “Ventus wasn’t able to defeat Vanitas. They struck each other down, and then the King said that Ventus’s heart never returned to him!”

“You’re not gonna do that to Sora!” Donald said. “No way!” Their combined force created a burst of light and drove the darkness back.

“Stay out of this.” Vanitas countered with a spear of shadows that threw them halfway across the floor. They landed in a heap, and Sora was on his own.

“Sora!” Donald and Goofy shouted, but they were too far to come to his aid.

Heart still aching, Sora picked himself up. He summoned his Keyblade, but Vanitas knocked it out of his hand. He pointed his own weapon at Sora’s throat.

“Join your heart . . . with mine!”

Darkness swarmed around them, and Sora’s vision went black.

*

He opened his eyes, but the factory was gone. Darkness surrounded him on all sides, save for the light at his feet. A stained glass platform. This was a Dive to the Heart.

Sora blinked, slow and groggy. He took a step forward, but his movements were sluggish. The transition to a Dive was normally a seamless shift in reality, but now he struggled to remain conscious. The sensation was horribly familiar, the same as when he’d fallen to darkness during the Mark of Mastery exam. Like before, his heart was forced into sleep.

Something else was wrong. The platform still depicted himself and his friends, but the color was orange instead of blue.

“You think dragging me here will save you, brother?”

Sora’s head snapped up. A figure stood at the other edge of the platform. Vanitas.

“Y-you . . .” 

Vanitas must’ve forced their hearts into the Dive. He approached Sora without any sign of weariness, as sure as a predator stalking their prey. His coat was gone but his mask still remained, the dark surface reflecting the altered color of the glass platform.

“How—how did you do this?” Sora asked. He blinked again, his vision finally steading. He summoned his Keyblade again, this time holding it in a two-handed grip. Vanitas hadn’t summoned his, but Sora would be prepared this time.

“Me?” Vanitas barked out a laugh. “You think I brought us here? To bask in the blinding light of your heart? No, I didn’t bring us here. That must’ve been you,  _ Ventus.” _

Ventus?  _ Inside Sora’s heart, _ Goofy had said. A warmth glowed in his chest, and understanding dawned. Sora wasn’t even surprised to learn someone else had taken refuge in his heart, but now was really not a good time for such revelations. Donald and Goofy couldn’t help him here. Sora tightened his grip on his Keyblade, arms still shaking slightly. He was on his own.

“You’re not taking Ventus’s heart.”

“Yes,  _ I am.” _

Darkness pooled around Vanitas’s feet, obscuring the platform’s light. He raised his Keyblade, fire gathering at the tip of the blade.

Sora charged forward, attacking before Vanitas could finish his spell. His Keyblade hit Vanitas—no, it sliced through empty air. He’d vanished, leaving behind a fading afterimage. He appeared overhead. Sora moved, too late, and Vanitas came crashing down.

Keyblades connected, but not Sora’s. The light forced Vanitas back. 

“How—?” Vanitas shouted. “But Sora’s heart is  _ weak.” _

The light faded, and Sora saw another black-coated figure standing between him and Vanitas, twin Keyblades in hand. Oathkeeper and Oblivion.

“This isn’t Sora’s heart,” Roxas said. Sora couldn’t see his face, but he could hear the smug grin in his voice. “It’s  _ mine.” _

And then he attacked.

Keyblades raged, a flurry of darkness and light. The stained glass seemed to glow brighter, the light of a sunset filling Sora’s eyes. 

Vanitas tried to sidestep Roxas and charge at Sora, but Roxas’s relentless attacks gave him no room to move. Vanitas managed to cast a blaze of fire that honed in on Sora. He raised his Keyblade, prepared to block the incoming spell. Pillars of light burst up from the platform and formed a protective barrier around him. Even while fighting an enemy, Roxas was still looking out for him.

Roxas pushed Vanitas to the edge of the platform. Twin Keyblades slashed down but only struck Vanitas’s afterimage. He reappeared behind Roxas, knocked Oathkeeper away, and froze the tip of Oblivion to the glass.

Vanitas didn’t attack while Roxas was trapped. Instead, he barked out a laugh. “Of course. You’re the other half of Sora’s heart. So, how does it feel to be only half of a whole?”

_ “Shut up.” _

Roxas broke out of the ice and resummoned his fallen weapon. He surged forward. Vanitas tried to block, but Roxas pinned Vanitas’s Keyblade between his two.

“This isn’t over,  _ brother,” _ Vanitas snarled in Sora’s direction before vanishing in an aura of darkness. 

Sora gasped out a breath as a weight on his chest lifted. His body no longer felt like he was underwater. Vanitas’s dark presence had been suffocating, and Sora almost dropped to his knees from relief.

“Were you just gonna let that guy boss you around?”

Sora looked up as Roxas walked across the platform to him. His hood was down and a smirk played on his face.

“Roxas, I . . . Thanks.” 

Roxas shrugged as he dismissed his Keyblades. “Hey, no problem. I gotta protect myself, too, you know. You’re heart’s not the only one hanging out here.”

Before Roxas could say another word, Sora pulled him into a hug. “We’re working on a way for you to be yourself, but it’s going to take a little more time.” Sora drew back, and Roxas had a distant look on his face.

“Well, hurry it up or I’ll take over your body instead.” Roxas grinned and hit his shoulder. “Just kidding. But seriously. Hurry up before that weirdo comes back. I don’t want to know what other tricks he’s got.”

Sora rubbed his shoulder and gave him a thumbs-up. “Will do.” 

“And . . . when you see Axel, can you tell him—actually, nevermind.”

“You sure? I can pass on a message.”

Roxas shook his head. “Nah. I’ll do it in person.”

They shared a smile, and Sora’s vision went white.

**Author's Note:**

> I want Vanitas to return for various reasons, but the main one being a fight between him and Roxas. Or at least some interaction between them. 
> 
> (Also, I like to think that the different colors of Sora's heart station represent different characters: blue for Sora, green for Ven, and orange for Roxas and Xion.)
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
